Front-mounted mowers typically have a pair of arms which are pivotally connected to a vehicle, extend forwardly therefrom and have their forward ends connected to a mower deck, either directly or indirectly. Generally the arms are pivoted to the vehicle so that the mower deck can float vertically relative to the vehicle and, in some cases, so the arms can be used to raise and lower the mower deck in much the same manner as a front or rear power hitch on an agricultural or lawn and garden tractor.
In order to have front-mounted mowers steer and track properly, it is necessary to prevent lateral movement of the forwardly extending arms relative to the tractor. In the past lateral movement has been prevented through the use of rather bulky bushings mounting the arms on the vehicle, but this solution has not proved entirely satisfactory and has been rather costly. Attempts have been made to form the arms integral with a pivot tube, but this has prevented independent movement between the two arms as may be necessary for proper mower float and has also been expensive.
In agricultural and lawn and garden tractors lateral sway of the draft or push links is limited by sway bars which are attached to the draft or push links at a point intermediate their ends and extend away from such attachment point to another attachment point on the tractor. The disadvantage with such lateral sway limiting links has been that they operated through such a small angle relative to the draft or push link that very little of the resistive force they provided actually worked against side force causing the lateral sway.